Dem defects; switches off Obama’s lights in campaign ad

Senate candidate Natalie Tennant has joined a growing number of Democrats who have broken ranks with her President’s and party’s war on energy.

In a hard-hitting campaign ad she stands at a coal electricity plant and pulls a switch, leaving the White House in the dark.

“Where do they think their electricity comes from?” the West Virginia Democrat asks. “You and I know it’s our hard-working West Virginia coal miners who power America.” “I’ll stand up to leaders of both parties who threaten our way of life.” She then says, “I’ll make sure President Obama gets the message.” She throws the switch and out go the lights at the White House.

The Obama administration’s war on coal and electricity has not been well received in coal mining states. Tennant hopes to join fellow West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin in the Senate. Manchin distanced himself from his party’s energy policies with an ad in which he took “dead aim” and (literally) shot a hole in a proposed cap and trade bill.

Shelley Moore Capito

So far the strategy does not appear to have worked for Tennant. Polls show her consistently trailing her Republican opponent, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, by double digits.

Kentucky Democratic Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes issued a press statement in which she stated that EPA’s rule to limit CO2 emissions from existing power plants, “is more proof that Washington isn’t working for Kentucky.”

Australia’s carbon tax recently led to a massive electoral rout for its Labor Party. Newly elected Prime Minister Tony Abbot promptly repealed the tax. Democrats like Tennant, Grimes and Manchin do not want to be knocked down by a similar wave.

It remains to be seen whether declaring themselves in open rebellion with their party over climate and energy can shield other coal state Democrats, as it did Joe Manchin, and how far their energy rebellion will spread beyond the coal belt.